


Requital

by Kumakins



Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X, Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types
Genre: Drama, Gen, Hurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 09:55:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15531732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kumakins/pseuds/Kumakins
Summary: "Who are you to redeem him?" X whispered."I am Commander of the Maverick Hunters," Sigma reminded X. He took comfort knowing this alone gave him authority to sway Zero's fate.--Technically, one of the Doctor Cain Era shorts.





	Requital

Doctor Cain grinned like a madman as Sigma grew increasingly flustered. Broad, confident shoulders were worn into a forward slump as he leaned over the object of his frustration. His massive hands were outstretched and uncharacteristically animated, moving about as if flailing could better illustrate his point. Sigma's voice progressively rose throughout his desperate struggle to regain the upper hand in this one-sided debate. X noted all the replica's efforts with terse, quiet indifference. Cain was certain Sigma had never been at the mercy of X's unbridled disdain before, and he almost pitied his creation.

"You will see this is in Zero's best interest!" Sigma insisted.

"Of course." X's assurance was a dagger wrapped in silk. "You always know what's best for everyone."

"Was that sarcasm?" Sigma physically recoiled. Since when did sweet, polite X use sarcasm?

"More like an expression of ambivalence." X snagged an unfinished beer bottle from Doctor Cain's recliner. The human immediately howled an objection.

"I'm not done! What was that for?"

"For enjoying this too much." X's smile didn't match his eyes and Cain folded. He only dared to grumble below his breath at the empathic android scolding his schadenfreude. "Besides, this isn't good for your blood pressure. I saw the warning label on your medication: no alcohol."

"X, we are not finished," Sigma groused once he recovered from shock.

"Go on, then. I can hear you." X didn't bother to face Sigma and gathered more rubbish from Cain's side table. The implicit rebuff was staggering. Sigma's brow tensed and he tactically halted further advance to study his frustratingly evasive target.

The Hunter Commander was unfamiliar with being at a disadvantage. Only now he realized X hardly uttered a word yet effortlessly kept him on the defensive this entire time. Such skill boggled Sigma given the lab tech was normally quite agreeable and avoided confrontation like the plague. How did X become so formidable?

There was only one possible source of incendiary influence on X, and it made Sigma want to throw his face into his palms.

"I have created a monster," Cain groaned self-pityingly as he watched the surly X discard his beer into a waste bin followed by the mountain of clutter. "Forgive me, Sigma."

"Doctor, please..." Sigma released a hot breath through his nostrils. Culprit confirmed, but now wasn't the time to deal with Cain. Sigma needed to mentally regroup and strategize how to quell X's five-day rampage. 

Rampage, in X Speak, meant aggressively completing chores while smothering his victim beneath a blanket of silent vehemence. Sigma knew the lab tech could be stubborn but he had severely underestimated X's capacity for wrath. The worst case scenario typically entailed a fit of sulking, easily weathered if the Hunter Commander was willing to endure. Normally he didn't but he could. This was different.

"X, we need to talk." Sigma attempted to claim moral authority as the reasonable adult in the room. Hopefully, it would give him an edge as he reengaged the template.

"We do." X agreed too easily. He emptied the half-filled waste bin into a 30-gallon bag for proper disposal. He wasn't risking Doctor Cain digging his beer out. "You aren't ready to talk."

"I have been trying talk with you for days!" Sigma's thick eyebrows twitched as he willed his lip not to curl.

"No." X rounded so swiftly on Sigma it triggered the warrior's tactical protocols. Borderline combat speed from gentle X effectively unsettled and quieted the giant. Threat assessment profiling forced all focus onto the petite lab tech, sharpening his visual and audio receptors. Mild aggravation flared when Sigma realized that was X's intent. "You're attempting to compel me into agreement. There is a difference in talking and imposing your will."

Sigma was insulted. His fist slammed the emptied waste bin from his progenitor's hands far harder than necessary. The unfiltered outburst unnerved him as much as it frightened X. Sigma drew in a sharp hiss upon realizing his mistake, and the lab tech searched for any hint of further dramatics. Neither bothered to see where the bin landed as their targeting systems locked on each other.

Not even Doctor Cain dared speak as the waste bin clattered across his sitting room. Their dispute suddenly escalated past the point of intervention without him realizing. Now something utterly inconceivable to Cain had occurred: Sigma, the most stable and consistent person he knew, lost control.

The following silence ate away Sigma's remaining composure. Lashing out tore open a void he could sense rapidly expanding and threatening to separate him from X. The void screamed to be filled, and he could not abide distrust tainting the space between them. "Forgive my brutishness, but I would never do such a thing!" he adamantly denied. "I have nothing but utmost respect for you."

"I believe you respect me," X confirmed in a quieter, subdued tone. Sigma's core lurched and desire for validation twisted into painful need. Assent from pure, noble X would justify his actions as virtuous. Sigma knew he was in the right, but would never be irreproachable without X's blessing. For the first time in his life, the reploid felt like a small child standing before his elder.

X's hand delicately reached up to Sigma's chiseled, sharp jawline. The commander leaned closer and stared hopefully into the depths of pitying emerald optics.

This was wrong. 

X was not supposed to pity Sigma. X was supposed to admire and support him. He was the first of all reploids as well as the Maverick Hunter Commander, a natural leader protecting all human and reploid kind. Sigma was not to be pitied by anyone; least of all by an old robot as naive and fallible as X. This was madness!

Sigma was disgusted by his own arrogance.

"I respect you, too." Sigma's humbled pride swelled at those words much to his shame. He wanted to turn his head from X but was locked in place by the affectionate touch. "That's why it hurts thinking you would use Zero's past against him."

"I offered redemption," Sigma argued. X lowered his gaze briefly, optics flickering with preemptive regret before their eyes made contact again. His hand fell back to his side.

"Who are you to redeem him?" X whispered. Sigma's voice caught as he failed to decipher the template's exact meaning. His face gnarled into an ugly knot of confusion.

"I am Commander of the Maverick Hunters," Sigma reminded X. He took comfort knowing this alone gave him authority to sway Zero's fate. The title was a rallying cry for his scrambled confidence. "Zero will benefit from having a constructive use for his talents while atoning for his crimes."

He was disappointed when X's head shook back and forth.

"Zero doesn't need atonement. He's not guilty of any crime due to errors causing temporary insanity. Logs of Zero's mental output prove a fundamental shift in his cognitive circuit!" X shook with the effort of filtering vexation and rage from his voice. The result was a steely, even tone barely masking contempt for how the former Maverick was treated. "That... 'offer' is nothing more than manipulating his guilt to benefit the Hunters, and masquerading it as mercy."

"What kind of person do you take me for?" Sigma snarled as X's accusation ripped into him, wounding the Hunter at his core. "You know me better!"

"I knew you better."

The wound deepened.

X hated himself for saying it, but didn't speak lightly; each word was carefully weighed before leaving his mouth. His gaze fell away again, and he grimaced, yet continued as if navigating thin ice.

"You've been different... Maverick incidents are increasing in frequency and severity so I don't entirely blame you, but I am worried you--"

"--Can't handle the pressure?" The hostility in Sigma's tone alarmed X. He backpedaled swiftly in response.

"N-No! I have complete faith in your capabilities and strength!" X stumbled over the flimsy sentiment but so dearly wanted to believe himself. "Anyone would be pushed to extremes. You have responsibilities I can't begin to imagine so I have no right to judge."

"Yet you are judging." Sigma was unmoved, posture rigidly fixed like stone. The wound X inflicted was festering.

X was caught there. He heaved a reluctant sigh. "Zero is my friend, Sigma..." X followed up his admitted bias with another tiny surge of righteousness. "Even if he wasn't my friend, I would question the Hunters' motives. This only reinforces existing stigmas and prejudices."

"No other Hunters need to know."

"Stigmas and prejudices Zero has against himself!" X raised his voice to match a fresh wave of aggravation. "A cage without bars is still a cage. There's little difference in locking him up and shackling him to Hunter duty under the pretense of salvation."

Sigma's face darkened at the unkind characterization. X never meant it as a barb, but Sigma bristled when further rebuked for professing to redeem Zero. "You speak as though I am heartlessly condemning an innocent to a labor camp for profit."

"Sigma..." Now X was desperate for his replica to listen. He messed up by injuring the commander's feelings. He messed up badly. Messing up didn't make his objections any less valid. "This isn't personal." 

That was a lie and they both recognized it immediately.

"Ok, it is personal, but it isn't a personal attack against you," X amended uncomfortably.

"You are being illogical," Sigma accused as he folded his arms and fixed the template with a scowl. "Zero enjoys combat. Thus, he will enjoy being a Hunter once he earns the trust of his comrades."

"Most likely he will." X couldn't deny the appeal of licensed combat for a warbot like Zero. Federally sanctioned violence alone would have lured him into Hunter ranks. Knowing this made it even more madding that Sigma coerced Zero with fallacious promises.

"Then you have no reason to be so opposed."

X could scream. His expression blanked and processor reeled sickeningly at his replica's distorted reasoning. Sigma's perspective was angled too sharply and rigidly to see any other point of view. Furthermore, nothing would convince X the ends justified the means. They were only talking past one another now.

X gripped the nearly forgotten trash bag and turned away. "I'm taking out the garbage."

Sigma frowned. Their discussion was far from over but he didn't protest X's abrupt retreat. The commander wasn't foolish enough to consider this a victory despite being the last one standing. Sigma was emotionally bloodied by the encounter and little closer to resolving things between them. Rather than making progress toward reconciliation, ground had been lost.

Doctor Cain whistled low in appreciation for the brutality of the reploids' verbal battle. Sigma's eyelid twitched.

"Doctor, please..." the giant sighed in a grave, heavier tone than before.

Cain did pity his creation this time.


End file.
